Recently finishing writing two spec scripts for "The Americans" and need to know how or who to send to.
Screenwriting : Submitting spec scripts to TV shows by Morgan Leo Shnell
Actor, Screenwriter, Crew, Director, Filmmaker, Production Assistant, Researcher, Story Analyst, Key Grip
11 years ago
Submitting spec scripts to TV shows
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That depends. What's your goal?
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Here's how TV works: you never submit specs to the series the spec is for. So you might submit an AMERICANS spec to SCANDAL or HOMELAND or whatever. The reason why: the AMERICANS showrunner knows their own show inside and out, and will instantly find fault in your AMERICANS script, so it does not get a fair read. All of TV works through agents. To find the usual path to an A show is through writing for all kinds of awful B shows and Saturday morning cartoons. You start at the bottom and work your way up. Shonda Rhimes who created SCANDAL started out writing for Spanish language telenovellas... and worked her way up.
Can you recommend a good agent then?
I don't work in TV (I have friends who do) so I don't know any TV agents. All of that info is out there, somewhere... you have to find it.
My manager has steered us away from spec scripts for TV jobs -- shows want to see original material (TV format). The only reason I suffered through my last spec based on an existing show was to submit it as a fellowship application.
Spec scripts for existing shows are more for practice than actual selling. It also gives you an example of your ability should someone ask for it. Write something original to get your foot in the door and worry about selling to existing shows later.
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Yeah, I agree with the above. It's great that you wrote it and you can use it as a sample or a contest entry, and as ONE thing you could send to a manager or agent, but you can't really sell your script to the show you wrote. That's not what specs are for. In terms of getting an agent, you need to have at least one if not 2 or 3 OTHER writing sample including an ORIGINAL pilot script and ideas for others before you submit to any rep. They can't sell any samples for already existing shows, so you need to have original pilots to send them.
You can use the spec script for the fellowships though, which is why I was asking what's your goal. If it's to get staffed, the spec script can help. If you want to get something actually produced, then you need to do originals. Hell, you need to do an original anyway, but if your spec script is really good, it could still help you get an agent or get staffed, just not on the show you wrote.